Beyond Defeat
by Ember Nickel
Summary: Submission for imakeeper's contest. Wood and Cedric talk after the first match of book 3.
1. Rate

"Hey."

Professor Vector had taught him this one. The rate of flow was inversely proportional to…

"Oy. Wood."

…but decreased relative to the amount in use…

"Someone cast a silencing charm in here?"

…until zero…

"There's loads of stuff more interesting to look at in this school than dripping water."

…which it would certainly reach, as nobody was occupying the shower.

"Hey. C'mon."

The older boy reluctantly stood up and turned around. He was still dressed in his red and gold uniform. "Oh, it's…you?"

"Wasn't my voice clue enough?"

"My mind's not…focusing…right now."

The visitor raised one eyebrow. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Because I've just lost the first match of my last year?"

The opposing captain sat down. "Is even your sense of humor gone?"

He rolled his eyes. "It'll come back. I hope."

"Don't do this to yourself."

The Gryffindor Keeper rose. "You didn't need to come here."

"But I did. Hey, where are you going?"

"Back out."

"Back? In that weather?"

"Yes." He walked through the door into the rain.

"Why me? Why me?" Cedric muttered, following.


	2. Room

Wood didn't bring his own broom out of the storage cupboard, but a school model: the Phoenix 42. They'd been discontinued several years ago, as their only advantage was their Temperature Charm. On a day like today, though, such charm might prove useful. Cedric waited until Wood had exited to fly aimlessly around the stadium, before going in and retrieving an earlier model, the 32, and flying up, arm's reach from the keeper.

"You're still here." Wood posed it as a statement, not a question.

"Well noticed."

"Are all you Hufflepuffs such…"

"Flaming idiots?"

"Bloody well spoken." Wood continued complicated maneuvers, then flew higher and higher until he was only a speck in Cedric's field of view.

"You have an oxygen-providing charm up there?"

"No, m-" Wood caught himself just before saying "mate", and plummeted down, at eye level with Cedric. He paused a moment before flying towards the end of the pitch, towards a logo of the school. "In here."

The shield rotated, revealing a small room. Cedric gasped audibly. "Blimey, what's in here?"

"Not much, just this." Wood indicated a wizard chessboard.

"You play?"

"Moderately."

By unspoken agreement, they began to set up the board.

Ember Nickel: This will probably make less sense unless you've played the first computer game.


	3. Rook

"You took the black pieces." 

Wood looked down at the board. "So I did."

"White moves first."

"No, d'ya think?"

"Yeah, actually I do at times. Don't you want to, y'know, go first?"

Wood shrugged apathetically. "Go ahead."

Cedric advanced his king's pawn two squares. Wood advanced his queen's pawn two. Cedric captured. "Are you even trying?"

"Yeah."

Wood brought out a bishop. Cedric responded, and they became engrossed in the miniature world. Wood's early sacrifice had in fact gained him a small but potent tactical advantage. However, he squandered it late in the game. "Do I want to know what you made that move for?"

"Sure. I'm going to pin your knight next turn."

"Oh, I don't think you are." Cedric captured Wood's kingside rook.

Wood swore, dragging out the vowel. "Not my rook. Rooks are the best."

"Should I ask why you didn't move it earlier?"

"No. No, you shouldn't." Wood reluctantly captured the offending piece (still a good trade for Cedric), which gave the Hufflepuff time to move his knight out of danger. He did not, in fact, know why he hadn't moved his rook earlier. Rooks were his favorite pieces; solid, reliable, and, on the opposite side of the board, being strategically maneuvered by his junior.

"I'll agree that they are good," said Cedric. "You're built like one yourself."

"Oh, and you aren't?"

"I never said that."

"You implied it."

"No," Cedric said, moving his own kingside rook, "_mate_."


	4. Rain

"Hullo? I'm not your-oh. That kind of mate."

"Yeah. That kind of mate."

"Play again?"

Cedric laughed and shook his head. "We'd better be getting back into school."

"We should..." Wood got out his broom and flew a lap around the stadium, then soared through the middle goalpost. "But I'm not going to." A drop of water that had clung to the post fell on the back of his neck, leading him to a realization. "The rain's letting up."

Cedric didn't respond. He stared out over the pitch, as if looking for a rainbow. But nothing was in the sky but a gray, looming, mass. Abruptly he reached into the pocket of his robe. The paper he found was creased, but still legible. "Oliver? Hark at this."

"Everyone calls me Wood." The keeper narrowed his eyes, but flew over.

"D'you recognize these names?" Cedric had laboriously copied 10 names, 9 of them Hogwarts alumni, from a record book in the trophy room.

"They're all Keepers."

Cedric rolled his eyes mildly. "Trust you to catch the Quidditch reference. What about their _houses_?"

"What about them?"

"You know this, _Wood_."

He studied the paper. "Gryffindor…Gryffindor…Slytherin…Gryffindor…I'm sensing a bit pattern here."

"And these Keepers are all not only eight out of ten in Gryffindor, but they're all…" Cedric pressed him.

"I don't know."

"Think about the _order_ they're in. You should recognize that, at least."

"I'm seventh?"

"So you are."

"Hang on…I think…no, I don't know. Who are they?"

"Hogwarts' all-time best Keepers, in terms of save percentage. This top one's a fluke, but the rest aren't."

"Why are you showing this to me?"

"It's the Gryffindors up here. The ones that'll stop the goal, no matter how much it hurts." Both of them remembered the incident in Wood's fourth year when he had been mauled by both Quaffle and Bludger simultaneously, "but took one for the team".

"So what?"

"I dunno. I guess I just…admire you guys."

Cedric's face was momentarily illumined by a lightning bolt. Thunder crashed, and the rain began to fall again.


	5. Rule

_Author's Note (3-28-06): This fic was originally written as a slash challenge, and the only romantic material is found in this chapter. If you don't want to read it, I think the first four are okay by themselves. Thanks for reading! Ember Nickel_

"We've gotta get in," Cedric said, and Wood agreed. They sped toward the locker room and stored the brooms. Then it was a run from the pitch to the school: normally a breeze, but in this weather perilous. Both of them were too hefty to be good runners.

And up, and up. The doorstep of the school was-there, and they panted inside.

Wood shook his head a few times, and water droplets sprayed through the front hall. "I wonder..."

"Yes," Cedric said.

"Yes what?"

"Yes, you can still win the Cup if you win against Ravenclaw and Slytherin."

"But-how did you-"

"I'm not in both Arithmancy and Divination for nothing, Oliver."

"What part of "Everyone calls me Wood" do you not understand?"

"None-I understand all of it. But I'm not everybody."

"No...no, you're not."

Cedric didn't have a very good reply to this. He turned and watched a passing Cho Chang. "She's really good."

"So she is. At Quidditch, you mean?"

"Yeah. Yeah, at Quidditch. Although-"

"Oh, you can't shut up now."

"Can so..." Cedric saw Wood's glare of extreme annoyance. "But I won't."

"Thank you."

"She's good at Quidditch, and I think she likes me."

"You _think_ she likes you? That puts you behind the vast majority of the school, who _knows_ she likes you."

"And you include yourself in that majority?"

"Of course."

"I like her as an opponent, but not...that way."

Now it was Wood's turn to be unable to reply without being awkward. "Makes Quidditch look easy."

"You're right there. Quidditch has nice and clear rules."

Wood took Cedric's hand. "From here on in, we make the rules."

When mouths meet, the game of deception ends  
And from its ashes suddenly is found  
A new game, for opponents can be friends  
And even more, by tradition unbound.

Chatotic, like a fractal, life appears  
Until a sturdy base exists to build  
A new existence, beyond taunts and jeers  
But open to all those whose hearts are filled

With love and courage, willing to go on  
No matter what the cost, until at last  
A new winner is crowned. Dusk fades to dawn.  
For when all that we know has come and passed

Love will endure. Though all may think it strange  
Perfection is, _per se_, immune to change.


End file.
